Chapter 197 The Knight's Journey
Of course, Lin Wen didn't disappear. In fact, he soon forgot the blow he suffered that day.
After all, there are more important things now.
Old Xie has come to him to cry about the financial crisis more than a dozen times.
If we were to ask who in Changshan County least wants Changshan County to face a crisis and fall, Old Xie would definitely be at the top of the list.
He has made this career his lifelong goal, and the feeling of independently holding financial power has made him deeply intoxicated and unable to extricate himself.
Now he just wanted to transfer Lao Lei back as soon as possible and let him feel the great achievements made by the Finance Department under his leadership. He already had a lot to brag about to Lao Lei.
This was a complete victory he had achieved after more than ten years of struggle with Lao Lei. How could there not be a defeated person standing by to add to his glory?
So, as soon as the financial crisis occurred, Mr. Xie became as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.
When his income continued to decline sharply and his expenses continued to soar, Mr. Xie became very frightened.
He cut costs and saved money everywhere, but it was just a drop in the bucket.
He approached Lin Wen many times, demanding large amounts of taxes, and set up checkpoints on all major routes in Changshan County to collect tolls.
But it was rejected by Lin Wen.
Lin Wenzeng had dealt specifically with tax issues. He repeatedly used the method of "Asking the Way to Heaven" to exempt all taxes that might generate bad karma or, if reduced, could generate good karma.
Changshan County is a standard pure agricultural area. The tax department adheres to the empire's tradition and is a powerful department that is allowed to carry guns. No matter how remote the mountainous area is, they can go to the door to collect taxes.
Therefore, agricultural taxes previously accounted for more than 70% of Changshan County's tax revenue.
But it was chopped off by Lin Wen with a single blow.
Another major tax type - personal income tax - was directly raised by Lin Wen to the highest threshold.
The tax threshold was raised to 10 times the average wage in Changshan County.
There are not many people in the entire Changshan County who have this kind of income. Those who once had it have basically gone to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures happily.
The only tax still levied in Changshan County now is commercial tax. Thanks to Lao Xie’s efforts, road tax has been added.
But it was soon banned by Lin Wen because [Shen Wu Cai Feng] had already reported to the police, proving that this policy was a bad one. It would not only generate bad karma, but would also most likely reduce Changshan County's daily good karma.
He directly ordered that Changshan County was not allowed to set up any checkpoints or charge any fees. In the entire Changshan County, only the checkpoint at the entrance and exit of the county would charge fees.
As for the boat toll on Tianjiang River, it is a bit difficult to collect it because there are no locks.
Moreover, there are very few ships passing through Tianjiang from Changshan County upwards, and most of them are ships transporting supplies purchased by Changshan County.
So it was put on hold for now.
In short, after Lin Wen's mysterious operations, Changshan County's tax revenue actually dropped significantly.
Although he didn't have much money to begin with, Old Xie was already in despair as he watched his money dwindle. One day, he rushed into Lin Wen's office holding a butcher knife.
The crows remained indifferent, but the security guards of the county hall were frightened and rushed in.
But he saw Lao Xie holding a knife to his neck, crying to Lin Wen about how dangerous the financial situation was, how it was on the edge of a cliff, and why he couldn't do it anymore.
Lin Wen thought about it and felt that the situation was indeed critical. Based on the current expenditure, the finances could only last for 15-20 days.
Once the funds are cut off, the supplies will be cut off, and we will have to use up the inventory. Once the inventory is gone, all projects will have to be suspended.
If next month's salary cannot be paid, the credit of the entire Changshan County will be bankrupt in an instant, and all the construction results will be destroyed.
So, he decided to use his backup plan - to go to other places to find wealthy people and promote good values to them.
In simple terms, it means robbing the rich to help the poor.
There were huge differences between the different regions of the empire. The further east you went, the more developed and prosperous it became, and the better the social order.
Lin Wen wanted to rob the rich and help the poor, so of course he chose the eastern region.
After scanning the map, Lin Wen circled Longzhou.
Of course, this kind of action still needs to be a little more covert, so Lin Wen put on a mask and found a long-distance bus in the town and set off.
The process was quite bumpy. Changshan County is a region that requires tens of millions of dollars in capital, and few wealthy people have such a large cash flow.
Generally speaking, when we say a wealthy person is worth hundreds of millions, we are referring to all of his assets, including real estate, cars, stocks, companies, etc.
Lin Wen had no way to cash in these things, nor could he transport them back.
Lin Wen spent five days in Longzhou, causing a stir in the city, but he only managed to get tens of millions in cash and less than 100 million in transfers. However, the bank card used for the transfer was quickly frozen, and he also got about tens of millions in valuables.
The bag made up of all these things is several times bigger than Lin Wen himself.
Changshan County's current monthly expenditure averages about 33 million per day, which is not enough for two days.
But just for such a small amount of money, Lin Wen alarmed the imperial special forces and even dispatched the army.
Tanks drove straight onto the streets, and helicopters roared over the city.
The entire city was under lockdown. The streets were filled with soldiers, tanks, and reporters running at full speed. News outlets were frantically searching for clues and information about the mysterious criminal "Tian Dao."
That’s right, “The Way of Heaven” has become the most popular entertainment news in the eastern part of the empire. Its popularity has soared, squeezing out many important news items and quickly ranking second, becoming the most watched news besides the ongoing war.
Reporters here will be rewarded handsomely by the editor-in-chief for any piece of news they get, even if it seems plausible and fabricated, as long as it is valuable.
The reason for this name is that Lin Wen felt that an ordinary mask could not show his status, so he wrote two big words on the front of the mask: "Heavenly Way".
Then he put on the "Tian Dao" mask and searched the streets for billionaires. If he couldn't find any, he would use the [Xianrenzhilu] fuzzy search.
For example, "Where is the richest person near me?" is a question that has no specific direction and is relatively low in consumption.
Then Lin Wen would go directly to the door and at a glance, as long as more than half of the money was stolen, he would directly rob all the cash and transfer the deposits.
Fixed assets are more troublesome, there are too many procedures for transfer, and this is not Changshan County, so it cannot be transported and difficult to convert into cash, so forget it.
It was completely black. After draining all the energy out of it, they would just blow it up with one punch, leaving behind a headless corpse lying in their luxurious villas, clubs, streets, etc., and they were too lazy to collect the body.
Then, Longzhou exploded.
"Billionaire was robbed of everything, the robbers actually did this!"
A headless corpse appeared on the street. Why was the billionaire brutally murdered? Is it a moral decline or a distortion of human nature? Please enter the Empire Radio 12 column.
Shocking! Terrorist thugs appeared in Longzhou, leaving millions of security guards helpless!
All kinds of news with sensational headlines gained huge popularity, and the ratings of various newspapers soared.
When a reporter filmed a man wearing a white mask directly defeating a team of at least 100 supervisory guards outside Baihe City, Longzhou, the news exploded.
The most sensational scene was when the last person fell, the mysterious man in a cloak and covered in blood turned around and looked over.
Although the reporter was shaking wildly, his professional instinct made him instantly zoom in the camera and give a close-up of the mysterious man's face.
Two big words were written on a pure white mask.
"The Way of Heaven".
The mysterious man just glanced at him and turned away, leaving only a background for the reporter.
Then, this mysterious criminal was given the name "Tian Dao", and various media outlets used their imagination to analyze his background, experience, boyhood, family, love story, etc. from his series of actions.
Since "Tian Dao" never attacks civilians and rarely attacks journalists, it only attacks the rich, especially the rich with a long history of bad deeds.
Therefore, the impression of him among reporters and the public changed from "a super terrorist with extraordinary skills" to "a rich nobleman with a tragic life, abandoned by his girlfriend, bankrupt company, and amnesia who turned into a miserable vendetta killer" or "a rebel and fighter when justice cannot be practiced."
Then, "Tian Dao" became a hit.
Longzhou Governor Gu Zhengyi was severely reprimanded by the Supreme Elders Council for this. The Elders Council demanded that he capture "Tian Dao" at all costs and punish him honestly to maintain the dignity of the empire, or at least kill him.
Gu Zhengyi was so upset that his balls broke. He hated this disaster that came out of nowhere. Not only did it interrupt his wonderful vacation, but it also caused him to suffer huge losses.
He immediately mobilized all his forces to encircle and suppress it, but the disaster star seemed to have suddenly disappeared and his figure could no longer be seen.
Gu Zhengyi was frowning, not knowing how to explain to the Supreme Elders' Council.
The First Princess, who happened to be visiting, said goodbye to him.
The First Princess asked, "Why is Governor Gu so worried?"
Gu Zhengyi explained the reason for the incident.
The First Princess smiled slightly and said, "That's easy. Just find a scapegoat and claim you caught him."
Gu Zhengyi asked: "Then, what if he shows up again?"
The First Princess laughed and said, "Behind the mask, who knows what's real?"
Gu Zhengyi suddenly realized and did as he was told.
Sure enough, the matter was settled. Although some people had doubts, they were unable to produce solid evidence to refute them. The Supreme Elders' Council also praised Gu Zhengyi's decisive action.
Moreover, although Longzhou's economy was severely hit during this wave, with estimated losses reaching billions, many places where "Tian Dao" fought have become tourist attractions afterwards.
The execution platform where "Tian Dao" was publicly executed has become a tourist attraction, earning a lot of money from ticket revenue alone, not to mention the economic benefits brought by tourism.
As expected, he is His Highness Li Linyue, known as the most virtuous and capable person in the empire.
Gu Zhengyi thought.
Maybe a little closer.
And Lin Wen also inexplicably received some good fortune.
Benefit all living beings, good karma +5.
Spiritual guidance, good karma +2.
It’s better than nothing, so Lin Wen didn’t care. This trip to Longzhou can be said to be a huge loss.
In five days, he achieved the same amount of consumption as Changshan County did in less than two days. Not to mention the energy, time, and soul that was wasted, he also had very few good karmas but a lot of bad karmas.
Indiscriminate killing, bad karma +11.
Disaster to all living beings, bad karma +51.
【Bad Karma: 328】
Lin Wen was so annoyed. It usually took 10 days for the natural state of Taoism to recover to the highest level. Before that, the reduction of bad karma could not actually reach 1 point per day.
Too many bad karmas will have a great impact on him and will affect the implementation of his final plan.
In short, this action proved that this method was very inefficient. The main reason was that the fixed assets of the rich could not be converted into cash, so he could only rob some floating assets, and the actual returns were very low.
The only lucky thing was that he got a piece of news from the last rich man.
This is a gold merchant who invested in an emerging gold mine.
The gold mine had just completed its first major mining operation and was about to call shareholders to distribute the mined gold.
Lin Wen became interested as soon as he heard it.
Isn’t that just perfect?
I can't move my house, car, and company building, but I can at least move my gold, right?
My requirements are not high. I have 100 tons of strength, so I can move 50 tons.
(End of this chapter)
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